South Africa's mature telematics market dominated by FM solutions

In its latest report on fleet management in South Africa, market research firm Berg Insight opines it will continue to be in a growth period despite the country's weak economic performance.

According to the report, South Africa is a relatively mature telematics market. The number of FM systems in active use in particular is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14% from 1.3 million units at the end of 2017 to 2.5 million by 2022.

Light FM solutions

The penetration rate in the total population of non-privately owned fleet vehicles used by businesses is at the same time estimated to increase from 28.6% in 2017 to just under 50% in 2022. A notable share of the installed fleet telematics systems on the South African market is represented by comparably low-end tracking systems like light FM solutions.

The South African fleet management market is dominated by five domestic players with broad telematics portfolios. Berg Insight ranks Cartrack and MiX Telematics as the largest providers of fleet management solutions in South Africa, both having estimated installed bases of more than 200,000 active units in the country.

Foreign telematics companies

The second runner-up is Tracker, which in addition to its in-house developed solutions also markets fleet management systems powered by TomTom Telematics. The remaining top-5 players are Netstar and Ctrack which both have more than 100,000 FM units in the country.

According to the Berg Insight report, foreign telematics companies have had little success in achieving top-ranking shares on the South African fleet management market so far.